Hey ya'll, so I am hoping you can help me with my saison, it is stuck. Check out my process below and let me know where you think I went wrong and if there is anything that can be done?

3 days before brewing I did a 3qt starter (og=1044) for each of my carboys with 5.5 gals in them each, used wlp565

I missed my mash in temp, I wanted 147, I hit 152, did not factor in ambient temp and temp of grains, but recirculated and cooled to 130 within 15 min and brought back up to 146 within 25min, I think this process took too long but I don’t think it should be effecting my fermentability like this.

I also miscalculated my gypsum addition, when I went back and checked my spreadsheet I added way too much, I added 28g, for a total of 18.5 gal, I added 11.3g in the mash (7.25 gal mash infusion) and 16.6g in the boil (11.25 sparge water), my RA was way low -144 for my color of 6srm, I had 231ppm of SO4, dumb mistakes!! Measure twice cut once right!!!???

Brew day OG = 1056 / efficiency of almost 85% (much higher than I had planned) stopped using the 5star 5.2 and doing water additions now so i am still working out what my average efficiency will be

I pitched just the slurry of the starter after cooling it to settle all the yeast out. I had good activity within 12 hours but it was done in about 24hrs. I pitched at 68 degrees and over 5 days I have brought it up to 78 degrees where it is at now with only about 5 bubbles in the air lock per minute

My plan was to add my sugar addition (3lbs total 1.5 per carboy at about 10% of total fermentables) at high krousen like I normally do with my recipes that include simple sugar, but I missed high krousen while at work, so I did a gravity test and added the sugar just after fermentation had slowed down. The gravity at that time was 1040 pre sugar addition, I added the sugar to each carboy (the sugar addition brings the OG up to 1068) the yeast went nuts (so i know the yeast is good) and within 24 hours were done, I tested the gravity again and I am right back down to 1040 again.

So did the gypsum additions mess up the yeast’s ability to attenuate the beer? Could the initial mash temp of 152 keep effected the fermentablity of the beer (thats cant be right, a pale ale ferments down more than this using that mash temp), should I add more yeast? Or toss it and try again? I tasted it and it dose not taste nearly as “hard” or “bitter” as I thought it would be.

You're using one of the most difficult yeasts. I'm no expert with this one, but it's famous for how slow it is to finish. From what I've read, a healthy pitch, warm fermentation once the yeast starts to slow, and time seem to be the secret for getting this to complete fermentation. Another option is to pitch some Wy3711, which is a much less fussy, but less flavorful.

the owner of my LHBS did a survey of brewers who had purchased this strain and the wyeast equivalent and EVERYONE has had similar problems. He seems to think it is problems relating to this strain.

I am going to try to do a small starter with the wlp566 and pitch that on in while in active fermentation and see how that does. this strain is a blend of the classic saison yeasts but also has some trappist style yeasts as well. not the "perfect" flavor profile for a saison, but at this point i am just trying to save 10 gal of beer.

river water brewing wrote:the owner of my LHBS did a survey of brewers who had purchased this strain and the wyeast equivalent and EVERYONE has had similar problems. He seems to think it is problems relating to this strain.

Everyone I know that uses this yeast has problems with it, too. It's just the way this yeast works. I've been told that it's thought to be a wine yeast that mutated enough to ferment beer, but barely.

My buddy that loves and hates this yeast said that he avoids adding simple sugars or waits until the beer is fully fermented before adding them. His rationale is that the yeast is "lazy" and prefers these sugars, so that once they've seen them they don't like to go back to the more complex sugars from the mash.

He also said he keeps it around 70F for a couple days then he starts heating it up gradually into the mid-80s and make sure the temperature doesn't drop. Then it can take months, maybe 3, to finish. He said that, whatever you do, don't rack it off the primary yeast until you know it's done.

That's a big temperature swing. You might want to make sure the fermentor isn't moving nearly that much. I doubt this yeast will be happy with temperature changes, seeing as it's so tempermental already.

I agree, i was concerned as well but before i gave up on this yeast i wanted to give it one more try at warmer temps, i pitched at 68 slowly raised it to 78 over about 6 days, then moved it out to my garage where i think the temp of the fermentor averages in the mid to high 80's and the yeast seem to be happy again, we will see how it all finishes out

Well on 7/25 i did a gravity test and i was down to 1014, i tried adding some rehydrated champagne yeast and got no more activity, i then did a starter with some 1056 and added that at high krousen and got minimal activity, yesterday i gave up and keg'd it, it was at 1012 81% attenuation

it tastes great!!!

i guess the moral of this story is dont add simple sugars till the very end and be patient and give it some heat.